Thomas Robert Malthus was born on a country estate in Dorking, Surrey south of London. He was the second son of Daniel Malthus, a country gentleman and avid disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume both of whom he knew personally. Accordingly, Malthus was educated to Rousseauvian precepts by his father and a series of tutors. Malthus entered Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1784 and was ordained a minister of the Church of England in 1788. He earned his MA in 1791.